I saw this last year and wanted to gift it to my good friend Dave who is a master at going ground up on face climbs, drill hanging straight from the harness and all. The way I recall it, Dave (who is seven feet tall and kills men by the hundreds, vis a vis William Wallace) led this thing drilling from stances and never clipping in direct or using hooks. He took some great whips along the way, or did he? I can't remember but it was awesome. It was a great display of sensible craftsmanship by a great guy who has quietly contributed much to the Moab climbing scene. We even got to see a great trundle from the anchor ledge to wrap up the full experience.

The route is on great stone and is likely a candidate for the best (only?) easy-ish bolted route in The Creek.

Enemy Invasion

Hall of Mirrors

Go Ask Alice

Locktite

Grenade Launcher

Dream a Little Bigger, Darlin'

Pop and Lock

Everybody Hurts

The Hurt Locker

Short Circuit

Small-Time Hero

Hip Power

The route is inside the chimney formed by a huge flake. Starts as a wide hands crack, but quickly expands to offwidth. Features and options keep the route very reasonable for an offwidth

This route is a solo traverse and can be done in either direction, or even better, go one way, then return! It can be a great traverse to do when it is hot outside as it is all in the shade. This is the

Parkay Squeeze

of Indian Creek.

This is described starting from near

Dream a Little Bigger Darlin'

:

From the chimney entrance to

Hall of Mirrors

, chimney up as high as you feel like! Traverse until you reach

Hall of Mirrors

(1/3 of the way along the route), and go around the corner.The ground drops beneath you here, so don't fall. It is like an easier version of the

Reed's Pinnacle tunnel-through pitch

.

Eventually the chimney squeezes down suddenly from an offset. Chimney upwards until you reach the crescent-shaped gap to slide through. You are now beneath the end of

Hip Power

.

Chimney over to a corner that turns 90 degrees again, and go around it. If the stacked blocks are still around in this corner, DO NOT TOUCH THEM! They are ready to go. Chimney higher to go around them. Exit via the start to

Hip Power

, and reverse from there for more fun.

You can shorten the route by walking the bottom of about half of the chimneys, but why would you do that?!

This route is great. It's identifiable as a long finger crack that faces south south-west, with an anchor consisting of two Metolious rappel hangers. The climbing is engaging and reminds me of an easier version of another of Jay's routes; Manta Ray. Lots of features and lots of finger crack climbing. The original grade of 11- seemed like a sandbag but stick with that if you feel it's fitting.

For those unfamiliar with the term, Staff Sergeant William James specialized in diffusing IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) in the Oscar-winning movie "The Hurt Locker." You might need to set one off to send this thing.

This Winter we had a good crew of folks who were motivated to posse up at this wall and get busy with some new routes. This is one of 8 additions we collectively put up in January. Many thanks to all those involved.

The route is amazing, and I feel very fortunate to have stumbled upon it. I think it is comparable to Burl Dog in style, quality and difficulty. I would love for some folks to go repeat it, as I think it is one of the better routes I've found and I think it measures up nicely on the tiny crack test-piece circuit.

The climbing is mostly very thin and the crux is technical lie-backing reminiscent of Burl Dog but just a tad easier I think. I'll let others help level out the grade. There is a good ol' fashioned off-width section after the crux as well that adds to the character, but it has a finger crack barely within reach in the back so big gear is not necessary. One can simply run it out or plug in a finger-sized cam deep in there. Imagine carrying a BD #6 through the crux of Burl Dog and you'll see what I mean about foregoing gear of that size.

Another note; In the crux it would be difficult to stop and place gear, as you're lie-backing for all you're worth and the crack tapers to next to nothing. Therefor I think it should be said that this route could be considered a little PG-13 for Indian Creek when truly giving it hell. If you blow it making the final moves of the crux you're taking a ride onto some small gear. Proceed accordingly. Someone stronger could likely stop and fiddle in a purple or grey c3, but I think it's wiser to just make a run for the tips crack after placing your last sensibly-sized cams.

A bouldery start with thin gear finishes over blocks to a stance. Follow the right-facing .5s corner to a slabby fingers splitter in lighter colored rock with a boulder problem finish.

A beautiful, clean and consistent squeeze chimney. A 5.10 for some, a 5.7 for others, or just plain harrd! It depends on your body proportions. It starts around 9-10" in width and quickly widens to about 14" for most of the rest. 3/4 up it constricts to 12", and does so again at the top, but you can scootch closer to the outside to pass around these.

This route reminds me of Devin's route Trash Man at Public Service wall. It's short, kind of fierce and hard on the fingers. There's a funny story behind Trash Man's name that you should ask Devin about sometime. Everybody Hurts is sharp, hence the name (REM reference). The stone is pretty good but it's got these funny runnels in the crack that are analogous to features found on limestone.

This route is a classic, albeit a short one. It's obvious over by the wide stuff in a black panel of perfect varnish. The climbing consists of splitter and off-set tips and fingers with a hand jam or two up to the anchor.

Good warm-up for the area. Scramble up on soft(er) rock to the base of the crack.  Jam or layback the gradually expanding crack. The crux is the slightly overhanging bulge near the top. Anchor is new bolts with chains.

Big hands to a short crumbly section to some OW and chimney with a soft rock finish to a ledge with anchor below a flake.

Hands and fists, to horizontal OW worming and then diving deep into a squeeze with a fist and ow crack behind the pillar.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Hurt Locker Area